{"id":865,"date":"2022-07-02T01:19:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-02T01:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artisunity.net\/talkart\/?p=865"},"modified":"2022-07-03T00:32:32","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T00:32:32","slug":"yasmeen-abdallah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artisunity.net\/talkart\/yasmeen-abdallah\/","title":{"rendered":"Yasmeen Abdallah"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ArtIsUnity <\/strong><\/em>Interviews: <\/strong>Yasmeen Abdallah\"\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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I am an artist. But growing up, I didn\u2019t know any artists; I didn\u2019t think \u201cbeing an artist\u201d was even an actual occupation. I certainly didn\u2019t have any role models or guidance in that area. It was only in college that I took an art class as an elective and learned that it was considered a profession. That\u2019s when I decided I was going to pursue it, and that I would teach art to supplement my living. Or at least do my best to earn a living wage on it!<\/p>\n

What are you working on right now?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Right now, I\u2019m working on some mini drawings, paintings, collages, textile pieces, zines, and artist books, all composed from scraps I\u2019ve accumulated during 2020. Their scale reflects the limitations of space, which I\u2019m approaching as a prompt, rather than a challenge. I am enjoying the intimacy of working so small, and rethinking the domestic sphere and online as spaces to make art for, as an alternative to the traditional gallery setting.<\/p>\n

How is it different from your former work?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

My former work took up space, quite often, in the form of large sculptures and installations that played with light, shadow, interactivity, multidisciplinary hybrids, and experience. The work made during the pandemic is more introspective and vulnerable; they\u2019re like visual diaries about this awful time, focusing more on isolation, mental health, loss, uncertainty and instability, and essentially just trying to survive amidst the stressors of the pandemic and beyond.<\/p>\n

Can you talk about your process of mark making? You use a lot of different materials, most of which are found and then stitched together. Can you explain why? Do you feel like there is an aesthetic and conceptual element to these materials?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I often think about misfits lost in the world (myself included), trying to find their way. I think a lot about fragments left behind (that could be from my historical archaeology concentration in college). I\u2019m interested in heirlooms, keepsakes, mementos, but equally as fascinated by the materials deemed unworthy of precioushood<\/em>. I think this is because I draw connections between the material objects and the people to whom they belonged.<\/p>\n

Growing up, I\u2019ve never really had much family, and my father, with whom I was closest, and with him, my connections to the histories and lineages housed within the material culture. On the rare occasion when I would hear things of long-lost relatives, such as a great aunt being a W.A.C. by discovering a moth-eaten hat that had belonged to her, I would study that hat, those deteriorating threads, and try to get to know them through the fragments left behind. It can be pretty emotional and intense. Sometimes, I\u2019ll come across scraps that possess characteristics of someone I know, and that will prompt me to make something. Other times, the work may be inspired by no one in particular, and may be responding to broader feelings and concerns of loss, alienation, fragmentation, or resilience. I stitch with deliberate features, much like the brushstrokes of a painter. At times the marks are grandiose, meticulous, refined, sloppy, haphazard, exuberant. I refer to my sewing technique as \u201cFrankenstitches\u201d because it is like Dr. Frankenstein piecing together broken particles to create a whole being.<\/p>\n

I want to honor people that have survived hardships, and I want to pay homage to them. I am a big believer in the idea of unity and building community and solidarity, and I see these textile works as a celebration of these ideals; as a form of protest art. They are less explicit than the traditional signage that one is used to, with fonts, graphics; they are deliberately abstracted, and crudely woven, because they are defying death, defeat, and their intended landfill destinies. They are meant to provoke thought and critical engagement, and I hope are accessible enough for people to connect with and feel the same sense of urgency that I do to push back at systems of oppression and complacency in societies.<\/code><\/p>\n

Do you consider your art a form of political activism? [Which causes are you most involved with in your art? Environmentalism comes to mind?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, I think it depends on the medium which issues I\u2019m dealing with. With things more rooted in human rights and social justice, they often take form in more text-based or figurative works, as traditionally, the visual vocabulary of activist art is often font or graphic-heavy, which makes for\u00a0powerful and memorable iconography. I recognize and often draw from this potent and impactful way of working when I work in collage, zine, or digital art forms. With painting and fiber arts, I gravitate more toward the abstraction route, as it offers some respite from messaging and there is a bit more room for interpretation of the works. With color, shape, texture, and gravity, narrative is less controlled and offers an opportunity to connect on another sensory level, which can be empowering, because people can draw from the art in many different ways while you are leading them somewhere more ambiguous, and I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s often those conversations that are most exciting and can lead to something revelatory. In these works, I focus more on environmental concerns, and collect and repurpose discarded materials and consumer waste. In salvaging the unwanted, I am finding ways to think about care, potential, and sustainable modes of living. I piece them together slowly and painstakingly, giving them the attention and love they have been denied. I hope that this will inspire others to help undo the extreme damage done to this planet. I impart my practice in all of my classes, and it\u2019s great to see when students and other artists bring it into their practice. So I think that\u2019s also a form of activism. Engaging different generations of students to think more ecologically about material sourcing, use, and potential.<\/p>\n

Do you work at regularly scheduled time? Is creation planned, detailed, spontaneous, improvisational, reactive, proactive?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I generally don\u2019t have a set time, I feel the impetus to create, and work that way. The schedule and the implementation of rules is something that I\u2019ve never worked well with. I love the fluidity of time and space. And when I sit down to work, I sometimes have an idea in mind; other times, it\u2019s purely free-flowing.<\/p>\n

Do you consider yourself a conceptual artist?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In some ways, I would say so. I\u2019m really driven by both materiality as well as concept, as a means of exploring questions or human behavior through art. Sometimes I explore materials conceptually as well: where does this material come from? What are the ethical implications of its production, the marketing, its intended use, what becomes of it upon human interaction? Do repercussions result from its existence? How can it be transformed after it\u2019s been disposed of?<\/p>\n

Did you study Art?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Artists are such unique contributors\/members of societies they inhabit, and the roles vary so much based upon the conditions in which they exist. I went to UMass Boston, a state university, double majored in studio art and anthropology in college, and minored in women\u2019s, gender & sexuality studies. I was fortunate enough in many ways to have some freedom to tailor my studies to explore art around the world, and to think about human evolution and degradation through a visual art lens. I was able to understand revolution, protest, war, environmental destruction, economic collapse, education systems, politics, oppression, consumerism, and resilience through the art made that addressed or responded to these issues.<\/p>\n

I have so much admiration for my former art educators. They pushed me, nourished me, and gave me the space I needed to grow. I am so grateful for their support and belief that I was making work that mattered. Everyone should feel that they matter, and that the work they do has value and validity. I learned so much about how to be an artist from then, but also how to be a compassionate educator that does their best to make sure their students are prepared for what awaits them beyond graduation.<\/p>\n

The ways I look at history and contemporary culture are drawn from my archaeology and art courses and the professors who taught them. Their expertise contributed a lot to my worldview. From studying indigenous cultures and later doing archaeology field work with two New England tribes and understanding history through those lenses, to understanding world history through photography art history classes, or through finer , I began to see ways to use art in ways that spoke of documentation in an array of forms. I began to make connections into how I could weave activism through art. I was so continually inspired through the experiences I had while in school. They provided insight into who I wanted to be as an art educator, and how my practice plays into the curricula I create.<\/p>\n

What role does money, income play in your creation of art?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The fact of not having much definitely does impact how and what I create. I have learned as I have grown as an artist just how much this plays into the ways I work, and what is produced in the studio. I only buy the bare bones required\u2014mainly glue, paint, tools, a basic sewing kit. Everything else has been collected from various free stores, artists upgrading their materials, recycled from daily life, or scrounged from various pockets of the world. In a way, I am a collector, an archivist, and a repurposer of the mundane, much more so than a consumer. It pains me to have to purchase things when I know that so many things go to waste, and I\u2019m much more interested in using an almost empty mascara tube than a new box of something, because I want to push that nearly-gone object into new terrains. There\u2019s something really magical about that process for me.<\/p>\n

Is your basic living income derived from your art?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

My income is mainly derived from teaching art, much more so than selling work. My work is not for everyone\u2019s taste, it has punk roots, and is very DIY and all about rule-breaking and not caring what the crowd is doing. I would never want my work to be just a commodity, or something purely decorative. It\u2019s raw, primal and vulnerable. So while I appreciate that it\u2019s not everyone\u2019s cup of tea, when someone does connect with it, it makes that much more meaningful.<\/p>\n

Do you apply for grants, fellowships etc.?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I have not been doing much in terms of applying for things since the pandemic began. I had been teaching remotely for the first year and a half, before being thrust back into a fusion of remote and in-person classes, and it was the most challenging point in my teaching career yet. I teach a wide range of courses, disciplines, and ages, so I\u2019m constantly moving furniture and materials around between classes and setting up demos. Additionally, as an adjunct professor and a teaching artist, I am an independent contractor, working for multiple schools and organizations. Each one has their own platform, curriculum setup, point people, and requirements. So I have numerous email accounts, faculty meetings, and administrative tasks each week, on top of individual and group meetings and check-ins with students. Time that I had spent commuting pivoted to endless Zoom calls, Google Meets, emails, stream updates, Slack responses, and etcetera. As we moved back to in-person classes, the demands remained, while commuting time and in-person meetings also factored back into the equation. So I would say the last year has really been a new learning curve of how to budget in-person and virtual needs in a way that doesn\u2019t burn one out, while still supporting my many students to the fullest of my capabilities. That has been my main area of focus, which is still being delicately navigated, and taken up an extraordinary amount of time. I\u2019m hoping that as things move forward, my time will be my own again and I can pursue my interests and fulfill my needs and remind myself again why I chose this path.<\/p>\n

What work, important interests occupy you in addition to art?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Social justice initiatives and issues are really important and occupy the rest of my time. I think they intersect a lot with education and art in a myriad of ways, or at least in the work that I do. It\u2019s very important to continue to find new ways to use our time and strengths to address these issues.<\/p>\n

Do you give artist talks?<\/em><\/p>\n

I do a fair amount of artist talks. It\u2019s so awesome to connect with people through conversations about art in meaningful ways through discussion. Engaged dialogue is so nourishing and reflective, and something I can\u2019t convey the significance of enough.<\/p>\n

Many thanks to Yasmeen Abdallah; view Yasmeen’s work here<\/a>, and in our ArtIsUnity Gallery.<\/em><\/p>\n

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